When he first met Eric Clapton, amidst the crowd in a hazy, poorly lighted club in downtown London, Jimi Hendrix had these words to say…

”Ah, it’s my blues brother from England…”

Astounding; I should say of that moment.

And correct me if I’m wrong but as far as I can recall, the infamous British Invasion of North America in the 60s and 70s brought no harm at all to the region’s music industry. In fact, the arrival of The Beatles, Stones, Who, Led Zeppelin etc. created a more vibrant Rock and Roll scene in America.

Let’s not get into that grass festival Dylan had with the Beatles though.

So where am I getting here?

Nowhere far. It’s all happening right here; on the wondrous land of our beloved nusantara.

Apparently, unlike the camaraderie between cross-border musicians mentioned earlier, some of us are super angry, and I mean Eric Cartman in the Dog Whisperer mad, at the emergence of Indonesian bands in the local scene and the incredibly positive response they’re getting from our listeners and the media.

These fellow musicians from a neighboring country are seen as a threat to our local music industry as they influence the public into buying their records instead of ours. And when it comes to live shows, they are accused of raking bills from the people’s wallets; to be spent on tickets to their shows instead of ours. Ah, and how could I forget. They’re stealing the local music awards from us too!

Some observation huh?

The only thing we’re not seeing though is how we’re making Shallow Hal look like a diving pool and ourselves a kiddy, ankle deep one.

We have our own brand of music and they have theirs. I don’t see any harm in them coming into the country and giving us a taste of their music. We’re doing the same thing too aren’t we with Siti, Too Phat, Search etc.? Why don’t we see it as a cultural exchange rather than musical invasion?

Precious time is being spent on bashing them. Nevertheless, there’s a ‘bandbasher’ in every man.

To be honest, I’d have to agree that some of their songs are being overplayed on our airwaves. OK not some, there’s only one in particular. I eat my steering wheel whenever the radio plays that Samsons Kenangan Terindah tune.

There you go, I just bashed a band. Hence, my claim is close to true. There’s a ‘bandbasher’ in every one of us.

Yet, would it stop the radio stations from playing it in the future? Or at least after reading this piece? I highly doubt it.

While I truly understand the strong opposing notion heralded by our angry men of music, bandbashing does nothing. You can bitch all day long but if there’s a change due to it at the end of the day, it could only be your level of masculinity stooping down to a new low, close that of Richard Simmons'.

That said, let’s join hands and quit our whine-o-rama and start making great music.

I don’t see the local music industry flopping down at any point in the future at all. We have a really strong foundation built by the likes of Tan Sri P. Ramlee, M. Nasir, S. Atan, Ajai etc.; the list just goes on and on. These individuals have shaped our industry and paved the way for new and promising composers who are just too many, still undiscovered, out there. And their original music spells serious class.

Ultimately, it’s all up to the people to choose whom they’d want to listen to. It’s only human to prefer listening to things you fancy and if 75% (scary figure eh?) of us Malaysians choose Indonesian music over our own, then let it be. We can only improve the quality of our stuff.

Most importantly, we have to realize that all in all, it all comes down to musicians making music.

Oh, and funny true story…

Two guys were in a car and running in the CD player was a Maroon 5 record without any of them realizing it. The first song on the CD was Sunday Morning and as the jazzy intro to the song ended, signaling the entrance of the first verse, one of them started singing in English and the other in Malay.